Kanan Makiya

2 articles

Opinion: A Broken System

If the 1991 war was about a restoration of the Arab state system, the 2003 war, coming in the wake of the shock of 9/11, called its very legitimacy into question. However much it bungled the first year of the American occupation of Iraq, the Bush administration by its invasion of Iraq had latched on

The Road to Tahrir Square Ran Through Baghdad

Ten years ago, on April 9, Baghdad fell to a coalition of Western armies. There is a close connection between the downfall of Saddam Hussein and the toppling of a succession of other Arab dictators during 2011. This link has been overlooked, in part due to the understandable hostility that the 2003